


Backfire

by Hollyflash



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, And the ethical/moral questions that come with it!, Chatot is the guild's dad and he loves his various stupid children, Gen, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2019-07-17 18:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16101707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollyflash/pseuds/Hollyflash
Summary: Uxie’s powers aren’t just limited to his lake, and affect all memories which could be traced back to the Time Gears. It’s easy to imagine the mental catastrophe this could cause in the mind of someone who’s spent nearly their entire life looking into them. In his defense, Uxie was really mad at Grovyle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So: this is a rewritten scene from an AU I came up with back in early 2016. I mentioned it over on my tumblr ([TotallycorrectPMDquotes](http://totallycorrectpmdquotes.tumblr.com/)), and people seemed interested, so! Here we are! This is just an amalgamation of tropes I enjoy, and the original version of this scene is the only one my past self bothered to write. I can guess where I planned to go with this but past me, That Tool, didn't bother to leave any notes.
> 
> Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Three days ago, Dusknoir had played his trump card and completely turned the citizens of the past against Grovyle with one swift half-lie. He had left their little settlement with three of the pokemon Master Dialga had once called _legendary_ a step behind him, met up with his sableye, and put the perfect plan into motion. He would wipe the final remaining children of the Planetary Investigation Team from existence, ensuring the continued existence of himself and Master Dialga.

Now, he was sitting by a campfire, with a sableye dressing the wound on his arm, the lake trio chatting tiredly across from them, and Grovyle, unconscious between them.

Mesprit had made him a bed. She had made the ‘mon who attacked her a _bed_ by the _fire_ so he could _stay warm._ In Dusknoir’s time, such unearned trust would get you killed. That was obviously evidence that these pokemon needed the future they would get, otherwise they would surely go extinct from utter nativity.

The fire crackled in the dark, sending up a plume of sparks that looked far too much like a human man. Dusknoir could make out features dancing among the flames, and the disappointment reflected in them. His body winced without his permission, and the sableye at his side froze. The conversation across from him fell silent, and the fire quieted once more.

Grovyle, who Uxie claimed would be unconscious for another twenty-four hours at least, sucked in a breath and made an almost pitiful high-pitched noise.

No. _Not_ pitiful. Grovyle was a criminal who had turned his back on the natural order of the world, and Breanna as well. They were idiotic children who thought they had a right to go against the will of Master Dialga _,_ despite all given laws that kept the world functioning. If they had simply lived with their place, then Dusknoir would not be _put_ in this position, struggling with moral quandaries that had no business taking up so much of his conscience thought!  

“How are you feeling?” It took Dusknoir a moment to realize he was being addressed. _Right._ He had an image to keep up here, which included answering when one of the lake trio spoke to him.

“My injury is fine, thank you for your concern, Mesprit.” He said, and waved off the sableye. The smaller pokemon scurried away, retreating back to where his brothers were stationed at the perimeter. “And how are you faring – ”

“No,” she cut him off, eyes carefully narrowed and focused on his face. “How are you _feeling?”_

Dusknoir resisted the urge to say ‘enraged.’ “I’m sure you don’t need me to put it into words.” He gestured to Grovyle, “Forgive me if this lacks my typical eloquence, but at least let me bind his wrists. You have barely any idea what he’s capable of. He is a liar and a fraud, and will find some way to turn us against each other if we don’t take precautions now.”

“There’s no need,” Uxie said. He still sounded a bit drained, despite the hours that had passed since he defeated Grovyle. Azelf pressed against his brother’s side and reached an arm around his shoulders. The two leaned against each other, barely staying upright. “That part of him is gone now, and unless I decide he deserves it back, he’s nearly a blank slate. He’s not very old.” The siblings turned to Grovyle, their irritating sympathy keeping their lips pursed. “With how much of his memory my eyes ripped away, the only explanation I have is that he was forced into this life as a child.”

For a split second, Dusknoir could see a disappointed human face in the campfire’s coals. He grabbed a branch from the woodpile and buried the mirage under it.

His carefully formed plan to capture Grovyle had fallen apart in seconds. Grovyle seemed to move at quadruple his normal speed, surprising the sableye with a version of _dig_ that turned the ground under them into a crude pitfall trap. Mesprit had fallen to a sleep seed, and Azelf to a stun seed. Dusknoir himself had been temporally disadvantaged by sheer horrible luck, as there was no otherwise logical explanation for how Grovyle had managed to hit him with an x-eye seed. While Dusknoir wrestled illusions, the sableye struggled to escape a pit, and their plan fell apart, Uxie had faced Grovyle with all he had left.

With every memory of the time gears and anything relating to them ripped from his mind, Grovyle had collapsed, and the plan to capture him had officially been a success.

“That does not excuse what he’s done,” Dusknoir said, and added another log to the fire before another echo of an illusion could form. “Tomorrow, I will return to my time, and he will join me. He will face consequences for his crimes.”

“Crimes that, as far as he knows, he did not commit.” Azelf said.

“That does _not_ mean they never happened.”

“I’m not saying it does,” Azelf said.

Mesprit held up her hands in an irritatingly placating gesture. “What my brother is saying is that we have an opportunity here. This is our chance to understand why someone would resort to stealing the time gears when everyone knows the damage that would cause. We won’t be able to know anything involving them directly, unless Uxie returns his memories, but we can learn a lot from the circumstances around them.”

Dusknoir frowned, absolutely certain that he _despised_ where this was going. “We’re not from this time. I only came here to find him. I understand that you’re raising questions of morality here, but – ”

“You took the time to create a fake backstory for yourself before tracking him down.” Uxie pointed out. “Don’t say there isn’t enough time to help understand why this happened.”

“If we can understand why someone would do this, we can make sure it never happens again.” Mesprit spoke up before Dusknoir could. “You came to our time because you wanted to help people, right? If you were selfish, you could have let Grovyle destroy the world or had someone else sent after him. But you _didn’t._ What we learn from him could be used to stop even worse outlaws one day.”

If Dusknoir’s façade of being a caring person had been anything but that, he was sure her speech would have been very moving. Instead, he shook his head. “I’ve said all I have to say. I can’t let you do this.” He needed some sort of convincing ruse; some sort of half-truth he could use to support his claims. He didn’t want to risk fighting them just yet. “The longer you are close to him, the more likely it is he will get his memories back. I can’t take that risk. You three must return the time gears to their rightful places, and I must take Grovyle to face judgement.” _Before you realize that Master Dialga’s tower is collapsing._

“Is a person really guilty of a crime they don’t recall committing?” Uxie asked.

Dusknoir allowed a bit of his irritation to slip through. “People were still hurt by his actions, whether he’s been rendered unaware of them or not. We have addressed the ethics already. I cannot allow you three to stay near him. You don’t understand what he’s done!”

“Considering how vague you were in your explanations; can you blame us?” Azelf said.

Dusknoir’s heart hammered. The face that appeared in the shadows and firelight looked even more disappointed now. The sadness and sympathy on the three legendries’ faces looked more like suspicion in the dim light. “Do you not trust me?”

“We’re _concerned,_ ” Mesprit corrected.

“Some of the comments you made while under the effects of the x-eye seed were worrying,” Azelf added. “We’re primarily curious.”

The face in the firelight seemed to laugh now, mocking Dusknoir for his misplaced confidence. “You could have just asked.”

“I did,” Mesprit said, “you wanted to talk about Grovyle.”

The fire crackled between them, the face fading away when Mesprit threw on another log. “You can call your friends back,” she said, “I’ll take the first watch.”

“Wait.” There had to be some way he could salvage this. “I stand by what I said. You three should not stay near him. However… you do have some points that I had not considered.” He hesitated, partially for effect and partially to decide if this was really the direction he wanted to take their conversation in. “You could ask the guild to lead this investigation. I’m unsure if they’ll agree, after what he did to their younger two members,” Azelf barely winced, but did so all the same. “But this is the safest option.” Not to mention, every member of the guild worshiped the ground he passed over.

There was a moment of contemplation, which turned to nods. “We could say he’s staying with Officer Magnezone to avoid causing a panic,” Uxie suggested. “I trust Wigglytuff enough to know he can keep a secret.”

“That is assuming he agrees,” Dusknoir said.

“He will,” Azelf said, sounding quite sure of himself.

 _Maybe, but will Breanna?_ He knew first hand how vindictive that girl could be when she thought herself wronged. Grovyle had nearly killed not only her, but her little friend as well – she would not allow Grovyle to stay. She would send him back to Dusknoir, and the punishment he deserved.

But only because she didn’t remember it, just like Grovyle wouldn’t remember any of them. Neither of them knew anything about Temporal Tower or Master Dialga anymore, or why they had come here in the first place.

Would Grovyle even remember what the sun was? Had Breanna? They had spent so long with their little Planetary Investigation Team obsessing over it, but the past had stolen that knowledge from them.

Half asleep and trying to ignore the lingering illusions, the realization crushed Dusknoir that Grovyle would not remember what he’d done.

He wouldn’t remember Breanna’s leg, or her brother, or her dad. He wouldn’t remember his family – the were from Treeshroud Forest, that would be too close to an association to the time gears. He wouldn’t remember what sides he’d taken. He wouldn’t remember Celebi.

Uxie had taken almost everything from him. He wasn’t Grovyle anymore; he was just an echo of a man with the same face.

The question of morals and ethics was back, weighing down on his closed eye. The illusion he’d been fighting off returned to his mind’s eye, and he saw past the scene now. He saw Breanna and Grovyle, younger and smaller then, peering out at him in frozen horror.

To them, that had never happened. As if the past had been changed, Dusknoir’s mistakes were erased from their timelines.

Ethical conundrums turned to plans. Moral quandaries turned players. Everything he had done wrong in the past no longer mattered, as it had all been wiped away.

He could enjoy the past for as long as it lasted without a care or worry.

The illusions faded away with his guilty conscience, and Dusknoir slept.


	2. Chapter 2

The chairs in Officer Magnezone’s station were stumps that had been cut for Pokémon much smaller than Dusknoir was. Still, he grabbed one, set it down outside the cell Grovyle had been tossed in, and settled down to wait.

The hallway with cells was nothing like the stockade Grovyle and Breanna should be in right now. It lacked the proper atmosphere of crushing dread and was far too bright. When Grovyle awoke, he might still have hope of escape – although, if Uxie was to be believed, it would still be several hours before they had to worry about that. Dusknoir had been unwilling to admit he wasn’t entirely sure how long an hour was, and he refused to take any chances. While the legendary trio went to report their victory to the townsfolk, he did his best to make himself comfortable in his self-imposed guard duty.

He’d never liked guard duty.

When he had first joined Master Dialga’s ranks, there had been an abundance of pointless little rebellions. Irritating as they were, humans were persistent. When time had frozen, they had created ways to grow their crops despite it and continued as if nothing had changed. But survival was never enough for them, and when one man stumbled across ancient information on the Time Gears, the humans had stood with him and decided _they_ had a right to destroy everyone’s lives. They brainwashed the Pokémon who weren’t smart enough to flee their insanity into acting as firepower and set out to end the world.

Dusknoir had leant his strength to Master Dialga as soon as he could. With his team, they had captured so many of the morons who thought history owed _them_ something. Afterwards, they would have to guard them while the execution chambers were being prepared. Dusknoir could still hear so many voices in his ears that echoed faintly and _promised_ that there was a way to save them, to save everyone, if they’d just _let me go, please, I can help you._

There was a face in the knots of the wood that made up the prison floor that looked like a concerned human man.

Dusknoir jumped and drove his fist into the image. Shards of ice curled through the gaps in the wood as it splintered. Dusknoir waited several long moments before he pulled his fist back. His breath came in heavy, shallow gasps that shook his whole body.

The x-eye seed should be out of his system by now. He shouldn’t still be seeing false faces everywhere he looked. Dusknoir pulled a sliver from one of his knuckles and turned back to Grovyle’s cell.

He’d shifted in his sleep and had his newly-bound hands pressed against the side of his head. His face was contorted in pain, and his breathing was much more ragged than Dusknoir’s. He looked pitiful.

Dusknoir scowled and turned away. He pulled the remaining slivers from his hand and kept one eye on the crumbled patch of wood. There was no hint of the face he had seen.

He looked up at the sound of familiar footsteps. “Have they finished?”

The sableye gave a short nod and a nervous laugh. “The bird and pink one want to talk to you.”

“The _what?_ ”

Dusknoir nearly wrapped his hand around the sableye’s throat. Instead, he stuffed his anger away and tried to look pleasant as he focused on the small form poking her head around the corner. “Ah, Miss Vulpix. You’re looking well.”

The human-turned-vulpix looked genuinely horrible. Breanna had dark circles around her eyes which stood out despite her short fur. There was still a notch in her right ear from the fight with Grovyle, as well as several bandages across her chest and front legs. One of her tails was still scarred with an electrical burn from the misadventure in Amp Plains.

Breanna frowned. “…Thanks.” She pointed a paw at the sableye. “Was your friend talking about the Guildmaster?”

“I believe so,” Dusknoir said evenly. He held a particularly large wooden shard between two fingers and snapped it in front of the sableye’s face. “You’ll have to excuse him, he was raised in a mystery dungeon. He doesn’t mean to be rude.”

Breanna tipped her head to the side, and the curled tufts of fur atop her head bounced against her ears. “I thought mystery dungeons were caused because time was out of balance – why wouldn’t putting the Time Gears back fix that?”

Dusknoir clenched his fist tighter, and the sableye gave another nervous laugh. “There are some questions even I can not answer. I have theories, but no facts to back them.” He forced a smile, “Perhaps you and your guildmates will find those yourselves, one day.”

Breanna shuffled and focused on her paws. “Maybe,” she said. Her fur fluffed out, and she looked back up. “Uxie took away Grovyle’s memory.”

Oh, Dusknoir recognized that tone. He _hated_ where this was going. “He did, yes.”

She glanced at the sableye and took a long breath in. “So, he’s like me now?”

“That is not a comparison I would make,” Dusknoir said. “You are a good person. He is still a criminal who nearly killed you and your friend.” He put on a look of concern, “How is your partner? Have his injuries healed at all?”

Breanna huffed. “That’s not the point.” She shuffled again, still clearly nervous. “D- Riolu’s fine. He’s fine. We’re both fine.” She looked up and focused on Dusknoir with a hard stare. “I want to talk to Grovyle.”

“No,” Dusknoir said automatically, “absolutely not.”

She growled. It was adorable. “Why not?!”

“Among other reasons, he is still unconscious. It’ll be a few hours still before he wakes.” Dusknoir said, “Beyond that, and please believe me when I say this comes from a place of genuine concern, he nearly killed you. I cannot leave you alone with him in good conscience.” Especially while there was still a chance he remembered her.

She huffed once again, and Breanna padded over to his side. She sat down between him and the sableye, her fur still fluffed out as she looked up at him with familiar eyes. “Then I’m not leaving you alone with him, either.”

Dusknoir broke eye contact and hoped his flinch was subtle enough. The x-eye seed should be out of his system by now. This _didn’t_ make any sense. “If you insist,” he said. The sableye laughed nervously once again.

For several minutes Dusknoir sat stock-still, and a human-turned-Pokémon with a dead man haunting her expression leaned against him. He refused to look her way. He refused to focus on any patch of wood for more than a few seconds. This _shouldn’t_ still be happening.

He didn’t even really know what _was_ happening.

The abrupt end to the sableye’s laugh alongside the approach of hopping footsteps brought an end to the brief peace, and Dusknoir forced away his moment of weakness. He glanced down at the sableye, who was focused on Breanna. She’d pulled away from Dusknoir and turned to watch Grovyle. His breathing was rough again, and he trembled in his sleep. Breanna took a small step closer to the bars.

Dusknoir placed a hand on her shoulders and gently turned her back around.

Chatot, Wigglytuff, a Magneton officer, and finally the lake trio turned the corner to join the group. Dusknoir barely withheld his scowl. Chatot took one look at Breanna and squawked.

“Vulpix!” He said, “Get away from that cell!” He flew over, landed between her and the sableye, and started trying to shoo her away from the bars. “My apologies, Dusknoir, sir. This impudent child was told to stay in her room and rest.”

“It’s quite alright,” Dusknoir said, forcefully casual. Breanna fluffed up her fur and sidestepped away from Chatot. She gave Dusknoir the same hauntingly familiar look she had before as she moved to join the larger group.

“Is it?” Mesprit asked and made a small gesture to draw her brothers’ attention to the damaged part of the floor.

Dusknoir, very slowly, dropped the slivers of wood he was still holding and floated off of his seat. “Of course. She was merely worried, don’t fault the girl for that.” He turned to Wigglytuff, who’d been watching them with an… unreadable expression. “Have you been fully informed of the situation?”

Wigglytuff hummed and skipped over to Dusknoir’s side, slipping in between him and the sableye. Grovyle had calmed down somewhat, and once again looked pitiful. “A bit, but just that much! He hurt my friends, and I want to make sure he won’t do it again.” He turned around and looked down at Breanna. “Did your partner follow you, my dear friendly-friend?”

Breanna’s fluffed up fur fell flat, her ears drooped, and she tucked her tails between her legs. “…Maybe.”

Chatot squawked, offended. “His condition is worse than yours! What were the two of you thinking? Where is he?!”

The floorboards creaked, and two unfortunately familiar faces poked their heads around the corner. Dusknoir couldn’t help but smile; these unobservant fools had walked right past Breanna’s partner and their bidoof guildmate. That could have been an ambush. They could have been _killed._

“Riolu!” Chatot squawked and fluttered over to the other heavily bandaged Pokémon. “You were confined to your room for a reason, young man! And Bidoof, they are your juniors! You should have known better! What were you thinking? Go back to the guild, the Guildmaster and I will be having strong words with the three of you when we return!”

Bidoof pulled back. Riolu, who was using him as a crutch, nearly fell on his face. “W-well gee, golly sir,” Bidoof rambled, “I didn’t realize this was so severe. And, ya see, they were mighty worried about the great Dusknoir.”

“Please don’t put yourself in danger on my account,” Dusknoir said.

“A ladder and some stairs are _not_ ‘danger,’” Breanna said.

Azelf raised a hand. “I’d like them to stay if it’s not too much trouble.” He smiled at Riolu, who still had a heavy patch of gauze on the wound on his throat. “We don’t want to do this if it’s too much for you.”

“Do what, dear friends?” Wigglytuff asked, humming again as he rocked on his heels. He was still watching Grovyle. “In the meeting, all you said was that all his memories were gone and he’d be staying in this time for now.”

“Not all his memories are gone,” Uxie said as Breanna opened her mouth. “I could only take away those involving the Time Gears. However, those were most of them.” He glanced at Mesprit and Azelf, who nodded in sync. “From the amount I took from him, and how fresh those memories were, it’s likely he was forced into this life of crime as a child. It’s unfortunate, but curious – I’m sure you understand how strange this mystery is. Why would a child spend years on a quest to paralyse the planet? If someone else set him on this path, then we may have a bigger problem on our hands.”

“Wait,” Breanna said. She turned to Dusknoir with a frown. “Was Grovyle working with anyone?”

A weaker man would have laughed at the irony. Instead, Dusknoir simply shook his head and lied. “Aside from the Pokémon he enlisted to bring him to your time, no. I have associates dealing with her in my own time. She isn’t a threat to any of you.”

The sableye gave yet another nervous chuckle. When he caught sight of Dusknoir’s disapproving frown, he coughed.

“And besides that,” Mesprit spoke up, “we’re now dealing with a young man who has no idea what he nearly did. You can see why we’d have a bit of an issue with just sending him back to the future for trial.”

Now _that_ was something Dusknoir nearly laughed at. The idea of Master Dialga leaving his tower to judge a trial was simply too amusing of an image. The lake trio finished running over the previous night’s argument and let Azelf have the last word.

“Given the circumstances, Dusknoir suggested that your guild lead the investigation into how this happened.” Dusknoir pointedly ignored the shocked expression on Chatot’s face. “And my siblings and I agree. If anyone can uncover this mystery, it would be the Wigglytuff Guild.”

“No,” Chatot said, “absolutely not! We will not put our apprentices at risk like this! He’s already nearly killed two of them, I will not allow the others to be put in this level of danger.”

Wigglytuff hummed louder. “I don’t know… Chatot _is_ right. He hurt a lot of people. But this is really sad.” He frowned and looked at his associate with wide eyes. “I don’t want him to be alone.”

“Guildmaster,” Chatot said, “this is far too dangerous. You can’t agree to this.”

“Don’t we get a say?”

Riolu’s voice was still quiet, hoarse, and raw. He sounded horrible and winced with every few words. Breanna hurried over to his side and pressed up against him.

“Dusk - Riolu,” she winced and continued, louder, as if that would get everyone to ignore her social taboo. “Is right. We’re the ones he hurt. We should get an opinion.”

Wigglytuff clapped. “Yes! You should! What do you think, Team Relic?”

Riolu swallowed and glanced down at Breanna. She replied with a determined nod, and they both turned back to Wigglytuff. He took a long breath in, “If he doesn’t remember being a bad Pokémon, we should help him.”

Dusknoir’s heart hammered and plunged from his chest. “Pardon me?” Something was wrong. Breanna _shouldn’t_ be supporting this.

“We should give him a chance,” Breanna added. “Right now, he’s not a good person or a bad person – but he will be a _scared_ person. He’ll know something’s missing, and he’ll want to find out what it is. We don’t have to tell him he’s a criminal. We can just let him be Grovyle.”

“I – I think you may have misunderstood,” Dusknoir said, and held up a hand. Breanna had total amnesia - she _shouldn’t_ have any attachment to Grovyle. “Just his memories of the Time Gears are gone. He is not entirely amnesiac. He may still be a threat to you all. Honestly, the safest option would be to simply let me take him back to the future.”

Wigglytuff whistled a brief tune. “But we _could_ just let him be Grovyle.” He clapped again, “This sounds exciting! Let’s make him a room!”

“Guildmaster!” Chatot said, “You can’t be serious! Shouldn’t you at least take some time to think about it?”

“Oh, I did!” Wigglytuff replied, “I thought about it lots while everyone was talking, and I decided that Guilds help Pokémon in need. Besides, Team Relic also wants to help. They’ll have something to do when they’re resting at the guild all day besides sentry duty – doesn’t that sound great?”

Chatot opened his beak, gave Wigglytuff a curious look, and then nodded. “Right, then.” He turned to the silent Magneton officer, “Tell the rest of your unit what we’ve decided, please. The Guildmaster and I will go set up a room for him. Vulpix, Riolu, I presume you’ll need some assistance making your way up the stairs?”

“Bidoof can help us,” Breanna said, a bit harsher than necessary as the magneton quietly left the room.

“I’m sure,” Chatot said dully. Wigglytuff raced past him as he began to direct the others out of the hall.

“We should be getting back to our lakes,” Azelf said, “And return the other Time Gears as well.”

Uxie sighed. “I suppose we’ll see each other during the next apocalyptic disaster, then?”

Mesprit threw her arms around the other two’s shoulders. “Well, I’m not ready to give up on family time just yet. There’s a cute little café just outside of town, let’s go get some brunch.” She turned to Dusknoir, “You should join us! They had a sign out front advertising purple gummi juice.”

Dusknoir sat back down and gave the trio a neutral look. “I appreciate the offer. However, I must stay here. Amnesia or not, I can’t simply leave him unguarded.”

The three of them frowned at him. “We’ll bring you one back before we leave, then.” Azelf said, and with one more uncomfortably long look Dusknoir’s way, they left as well.

Dusknoir took a long breath in and counted to twenty-five. He let the breath out. The sableye chuckled uncomfortably and inched away from him.

Dusknoir lunged for his lackey and pulled him close. “Let me be perfectly clear,” he hissed, “not one word of this exchange reaches the ears of your brothers or anyone in our future. As far as any of you are concerned, we are staying due to complications with the dimensional hole. Is this understood?”

The sableye nodded. “Y-yes! Yes, I -”

A low, disappointed voice cut through the sableye’s and drowned out his words. Dusknoir could feel the breath on the back of his neck. _“Murderer.”_

Dusknoir dropped the sableye and whipped around. He stared down the empty hallway.

“Master Dusknoir?” The sableye asked, “is something wrong?”

Dusknoir waved him off. “Return to your post,” he said.

The sableye backed up and hesitated for several seconds too long before he scurried away.

Dusknoir scowled and put his head in his hands. “This is getting ridiculous,” he groaned and glanced back at Grovyle. He was twitching once again. “What in Dialga’s name did you attack me with?”

 _“Murderer,”_ the empty hall whispered again, and Dusknoir shuddered.

“It’s the wind,” he said with a scowl. “It makes horribly irritating noises in this time. I don’t know how I’m supposed to enjoy history with it always whispering like that.” He turned back around. For a breath, there was the image of a human man in front of him, fully dressed in the regalia of Primal Dialga’s army. A dark cloud of shadows wrapped around his lower ribcage, obscuring any injuries. He raised a hand.

Dusknoir dared to blink, and the image was gone.

In the cell behind him, Grovyle gave a high-pitched wheeze that almost sounded like a scream.

.-.

Chatot didn’t need the Guildmaster’s subtle but pointed ear twitch to tell him to stay; he’d planned to do so anyway. Wigglytuff hurried the younger three back up towards the Guild, he stayed by the station. The timing was quite convenient: when they were far enough down the road that they were out of earshot, Uxie and his siblings exited the building. They nodded to Chatot.

“Grovyle had a bag of items on him,” he said, “what happened to it?”

Azelf pulled a smaller, nearly worn-through treasure bag from his own. He held it up to Uxie, who carefully removed the four Time Gears from a side pocket before his brother handed it to Chatot. “Be careful, we haven’t had a chance to check it for traps.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.” He took the bag and gave it a brief examination. There was a pocket on the inside which was clearly supposed to be a secret, a surplus of reviver seeds and other healing items, and several orbs meant to assist monster houses. The truly odd part was how familiar the contents were to those carried by Team Relic. While there were more food-based items, which was common enough when traveling alone, the ratios and sorting were otherwise nearly identical to Team Relic’s treasure bag.

Chatot dismissed the strangeness and returned his attention to the lake guardians. “The Guildmaster and I wanted to ask you about the great Dusknoir. He seems…” he took a moment and struggled to find the right word. “…unwell.”

“We’ve noticed,” Mesprit said softly. “He was hit with an X-eye seed during the fight, and he’s been having a bad reaction to it. We’re not sure why the effects haven’t worn off by now.”

“He’s still troubled by whatever he hallucinated,” Uxie added. He gave a deep frown as Azelf glanced over his shoulder. “Frightened, even. We’re worried about him. He’s been acting like a different person.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine in time,” Chatot said. He adjusted the strap on Grovyle’s bag so it would fit his smaller form. “However, I’ll pass that along to the Guildmaster. He’ll be able to arrange something so our medical officer can check on him.”

The three relaxed. “Thank you,” Uxie said, “you should talk to that sableye as well. There’s six of them total, and he said they’re associates from his time. They might be able to help identify what’s upsetting him.”

“That’s useful, I appreciate it.” He flapped his wings and slung the bag over a shoulder. “Will you be departing soon? It’s a long way back to your lakes.”

“Unfortunately,” Azelf sighed. “We’ll have to contact the guardians from where the other two were taken, and the sixth one as well. It’s worrying that we haven’t heard anything from any of them.”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck.” Chatot said cordially, “I trust you will keep myself and the Guildmaster updated in case there are any other noteworthy events?”

“Of course!” Mesprit said, “As long as you’re willing to do the same for us. I know it’s a bit of a journey, but I’d be willing to teleport any messenger back to town.”

Her brothers nodded. “I’d do the same since mine’s the farthest out,” Uxie said. “Azelf?”

“Of course!” Azelf said, “and if Dusknoir’s, well, condition worsens we’d appreciate if you sent one sooner rather than later.”

“I give you my word,” Chatot said, and gave his goodbyes. The trio continued towards the crossroads, and he took to the sky and back to the Guild. He passed by the Guildmaster, still helping the injured teammates up the hill, and landed beside the sentry grate. One of the bag’s straps pinched his feathers, and he craned his neck to adjust it. As he did, he caught sight of something.

There was a small patch on Grovyle’s bag, on the same side as the supposedly secret pocket, which was completely worn through. In it, Chatot could see a few bound pieces of parchment. With a significant amount of difficulty, he maneuvered them out and into his wings. They were held together with a few braided strands of a rather plain string, which he barely noticed slip out of his feathers.

The first was a simple, grayscale map. It had the location of every Time Gear and several other dungeons marked – including the Beach Cave. _Curious._

The second was what appeared to be a reference sheet between footprint ruins and some sort elaborately curvy language. The third was another reference sheet, this one between what appeared to be the Pokémon Unown and that curvy language once again. Finally, there was the fourth – this was a letter, written in the curvature.

Chatot tapped his foot on the grate and shuffled between the four pieces of paper once again. “Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.” The Guildmaster would _love_ to see this. He went to rewrap the string, which was no longer in his hand, and frowned. He glanced down as a gust ruffled his feathers, picked up the string, and dropped it right down the sentry grate.

Chatot huffed. “Very well then,” he rerolled the parchments and returned them to their pocket. It was a simple piece of string; it wasn’t like one of the worst thieves the continent had ever seen would miss it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look at that, I figured out a plot and wrote more! Now watch this never happen again.
> 
> I'm... potentially joking. Probably. Hopefully. I've forced one of my friends who knows nothing about pokemon to play Explorers of Sky, so I'll likely be in an extreme PMD mood for the rest of the summer at least. Let's see how much of this story I can hash out through it!


	3. Chapter 3

For Chatot, it had been a particularly frazzling evening. The Guildmaster had reorganized a storage room with a rather small window for Grovyle by throwing all its contents into the hall. Bidoof and Loudred carried out their orders to clear the mess away quickly enough, although Chatot would _not_ be the first one to open the closets they had stuffed everything in. When Officer Magnezone had led the secret transport of the still unconscious Grovyle, Dusknoir had followed. As Grovyle was deposited in his new bed – closer to the Guildmaster’s chamber than any of the apprentice’s, just to be safe – Dusknoir had promptly positioned himself outside the door.

“Dusknoir, Sir,” Chatot had said, “we can have the apprentices take over that position. You don’t need to trouble yourself for us.” His intention had been to send Chimecho to take over, and more importantly, have her make sure the Great Dusknoir was alright.

But Dusknoir had waved him off and refuted any further attempts to convince him that they could help. “I came here to find him, I’ll guard him. It’s no trouble.”

A few minutes later, Dusknoir apparently caught sight of his reflection in one of the lower-level drinking fountains and jumped in fright. No one dared to ask what startled him. He refused to leave his post when dinner was ready as well, despite the fact that Grovyle wasn’t due to wake for another several hours. And Chatot, well, may have reacted by bringing him a plate of leftovers sprinkled with a portion of ground sleep seeds.

He was concerned and had every right to be! Dusknoir would surely be upset when he woke, and Chatot would take the consequences of his actions in stride. He would apologize for his deception, but not for his actions. Dusknoir needed to rest – whatever ailment he was suffering from would not be treated if he ran himself ragged.

Night fell on the guild, and Chatot enlisted Chimecho’s help to move the now fully asleep Dusknoir to the Guildmaster’s bed.

“And remember, this stays between us.” Chatot said, well aware that Chimecho already knew and wouldn’t say a word about Dusknoir’s condition. Nervousness kept him tittering about, though. “Are you certain he has to be awake for you to examine him?”

“Sorry,” she said, and used her psychic to gently set Dusknoir down. “If he’s against it, we could have someone talk with him and I’ll examine him while he’s distracted.”

Chatot hesitated for a second before he sighed. “You have better eyes for this than anyone in the guild. If you think that would be enough for you to help him, then I trust your judgement.” He shrugged off Dusknoir’s bag and did his best not to look at the sleeping form. “You may take your leave and return to your quarters.” He was _very_ aware she would not be doing that; the apprentices would be meeting in Team Relic’s room, where the two would be bombarded with questions about why they had decided to let Grovyle stay.

Chimecho nodded, and with a quiet ring of her bell, she left the room. Chatot watched her leave before he nudged Dusknoir’s bag closer to him. There was something strange about the bag, something that Chatot struggled to put a feather on, but it clicked when he found a worn patch on the right side where a few rolled up pieces of parchment were visible. The bag was the same model as Grovyle’s.

Chatot allowed himself a moment of short, quiet laughter – he’d had such a horrifying feeling, and all it had amounted to was _that._ How incredibly simplistic. Those bags must be mass produced in the future with that same defect. It was unfortunate that the Great Dusknoir had such a poor quality treasure bag.

With one long look at the pieces of parchment which, really, were none of Chatot’s business and were _not_ something he’d be prying into, Chatot returned to his post outside of Grovyle’s room. The Guildmaster sat to the left of the door, two crochet hooks in his hands and what looked like a half-finished yarn apple in his lap.

“Hiya!” The Guildmaster said, loudly, but clearly trying to be quiet. “How’s Dusknoir? Is he having sweet dreams?”

“I’m sure he is,” Chatot said, and made himself comfortable to the right of the door. “And Grovyle?”

The Guildmaster put down his yarn and stared across the room. “…No,” he said, “he’s still having nightmares. But he’ll be awake soon. He’ll be happier then.”

Chatot glanced back, through the curtain they’d draped over the doorway. The shadows were twisted around Grovyle, and in the dim light almost looked like they were standing over him.

Chatot pulled the curtain open farther as Grovyle shuddered, and the illusion faded.

.-.

There was no vulpix named Breanna in the Wigglytuff Guild. However, there was one who’d introduce herself by her nickname, Breeze.

She hadn’t known that Pokémon go by their species name unless interacting with their family until she was told. She was practically illiterate – everyone around wrote and read in footprint runes, but she didn’t even know the alphabet. When asked where she was from, or why she had made her way to Treasure Town in the first place, all Breeze had to offer was a shrug.

Honestly, it was impressive that no one had figured out her secret yet. Well, they’d figured out about her Dimensional Scream, but her secret of being a ‘human turned Pokémon with amnesia who couldn’t even remember her own real name’ was still safe.

Mostly.

Breeze sat beside her partner, Dusk, with their guildmates crowded into the room with them. They’d been arguing for the past several minutes. Breeze had been reorganizing her treasure bag for most of them and left Dusk to deal with their friends’ questions.

At least Chimecho had taken pity and brought him a chalkboard so he wouldn’t strain his voice anymore.

“But I don’t _understand,_ ” Sunflora said, “he’s a bad Pokémon!”

Dusk dipped his paw in chalk dusk and drew several footprints from various normal-types while Breeze triple checked her stash of orans for any orens. She returned them to her bag as Dusk gestured to his writing.

“I guess,” Sunflora hesitated, “but you can’t change nature.”

“We are still worried about you two,” Dugtrio said, “you may be confident in this second chance, but we would hate to see a horrible fate befall you.”

Breeze didn’t look at him (them? She really needed to find a chance to ask what Dugtrio preferred) and instead gently dumped out her orbs. She started to sort them by function, then alphabetically on top of that. Dusk used some grass and water-type footprints this time.

“We will not question your decision further,” Dugtrio said, “but know that you may fall back on us if this fails.”

“WELL, I will!” Loudred announced and was promptly shushed by the rest of the apprentices.

“Oh my gosh, do you _want_ Chatot to come tell us off?” Sunflora said as she whacked him with one of her leaves. “Be quiet for once!”

“Fine!” Loudred said in what could barely be counted as an indoor voice. Breeze heard him stomp towards her, and kept her eyes focused on the orbs. “Vulpix, don’t do anything stupid.”

Breeze pawed categories of orbs a little bit farther apart. “I won’t.”

“I mean it,” Loudred said, “I don’t _care_ if you think he’s cool, you get yourself or any of us killed we’re going to have a problem.”

Breeze licked her lips and didn’t look up at him. “I won’t,” she repeated, “I know what I’m doing.”

“But that’s what we want to know,” Chimecho pointed out, her voice gentle. “What is your plan? We know he won’t remember you, and that you feel bad because of how much he’s missing, but he nearly killed you both. Why are you putting so much faith in him?”

Dusk started to write something down, but Corphish held up a claw to stop him.

“Hey-hey, no offense Riolu,” he said, “but I want to hear what Vulpix has to say about this. She’s been too quiet.”

As an agreement rippled across the guild, Breeze coaxed her orbs back towards her. “Uh,” she swallowed, “well…”

Breeze frowned. Why… why _was_ she doing this? Yes, she felt bad for and identified with Grovyle, but she hadn’t been a bad person. She’d never hurt anyone who hadn’t deserved it, and Grovyle had nearly destroyed the world. He’d tried to kill her, Dusk, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf – _everyone._ What if she was looking at this all wrong? What if he still remembered how much he wanted to hurt them, just not the _why?_ What if she was being stupid, and putting so much trust in someone who was just going to hurt the guild?

“Come ON!” Loudred said, yelling right by her ear, “Spit it out!”

There was a muffled squawk before a tremor knocked the apprentices off their feet.

.-.

Dusknoir sat on the edge of a frozen riverbank beside a man dressed in shades of gray. They had a pile of rocks between them and sat in silence as they threw them into the river. The sound of a splash was there, but the water didn’t move as it sucked the rocks down. Dusknoir pulled out a rock, flat and circular with small protrusions around the edge, and handed it off to the human. Immediately after touching it the human gasped and gripped his head. The rock fell from his hand and rolled down the bank, bouncing twice before it finally settled in the shallows. Dusknoir stared at the man, and he stared back with blank, unseeing eyes.

Dusknoir blinked.

He was on a cliff face, a body in front of him and his hands stained a dark red. There was a loud, shrill noise. There had been for the past minute.

He turned around, and the image of a small child with red-brown hair drifted away like smoke. The cliff blurred. The body faded.

He was in a blank but colourful room, and in front of him was an unfortunately familiar shadow form with a wisp of white hair.

“Hello, Hope,” Darkrai said, absolutely smug, “are you having a nice nap?”

“Don’t call me that,” Dusknoir snapped, immediately on guard. “What are you doing here?”

“What, you thought you were the only one who followed those idiots when they fled back in time?” Darkrai said, “I knew you were dense, but I was hoping you weren’t stupid.” He sighed, overtly dramatic as Dusknoir scowled. “Of course that was too much to hope for. Tell me, what was your theory for why the brat doesn’t remember you anymore? The power of friendship between you and your minions?”

“You don’t need to act like a child,” Dusknoir growled, and continued to stare at Darkrai’s smug face. “You… did _you_ do that to her?”

“If it’s any consolation, it was a happy accident. I was aiming for the nuisance your friends have dumped in the other room – I planned on blasting him out of existence, but your little brat saw me and took the hit.”

“She’s not mine,” Dusknoir corrected, “if you did this to her, why don’t you go finish the job?”

“What, and take all your glory? _Please,_ ” Darkrai grinned, “besides, I could ask you the same thing. You’ve completed your mission. Why are you still here?”

Dusknoir narrowed his eye and spoke carefully. “There was an issue with creating the Dimensional Hole back.”

“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” Darkrai said, faux cheerful and still unbearably smug. He snapped his fingers, and the dream world shifted to hold a frozen Dimensional Hole. “I’ll just set this down right outside, and then you can finish your job.”

_No!_ “That’s not necessary,” Dusknoir said quickly. “Besides, they’re both still far too entwined with the others in this time. I’ll need more time to separate them so I can take them back without severely -”

“If you’re going to make excuses, at least put some effort into them.”

Dusknoir froze. Darkrai suddenly seemed so much bigger than him. “E-excuse me?”

“I _own_ dreams, you idiot. This is my realm.” He was barely the size of Darkrai’s eye now. “I know you don’t want to leave. For all you try and protest you want to stay here and enjoy this time before it’s gone, while still _pretending_ you’re just doing your job. And who could blame you, especially with _your_ history? I wonder what Dialga would think of this after how much faith they put in you. I’m sure they’d be rather cross.”

“Don’t question my loyalties,” Dusknoir shouted back, and struggled to keep himself steady as Darkrai’s laugh shook the dreamscape. “I’m just as loyal to Master Dialga as you are!”

The laugh grew louder. The colours got brighter, more saturated, and began to drip into each other.

“That’s not a very high bar,” Darkrai said. “Still, if you’re oh so convinced of your loyalties, then let me make the task simpler for you.” Dusknoir looked down and saw that his hand wrapped around Chatot’s neck.

“Wait -” he couldn’t shout. His voice wouldn’t get any louder than a whisper. The ground below him started to shake as the shadows morphed into Wigglytuff, and the colours dripped into the background of the Wigglytuff guild. Dusknoir tried to shout again, but no words came out.

“The Dimensional Hole will be atop Mt Bristle when you’re done,” Darkrai’s voice said, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once. “Don’t take too long. Make sure you don’t need my help again.”

A variety of faceless shadows ran in from down the hall, led by that same little girl with red-brown hair.

Dusknoir jolted, free from the nightmare. Breanna, who’d led the charge of apprentices through the guild’s shaking halls, was a vulpix again.

Dusknoir dropped Chatot and backed up as quickly as he could. The guild stopped shaking as Dusknoir raised his hands, and everyone ran over to help Chatot up. He had tiny flakes of ice in his feathers, and Dusknoir glanced down at his hands in horror. There was no recovery from this. He would be run out – he needed to grab the two he had come for and be done with it. He had no time to waste.

“I’m alright,” Chatot wheezed, and looked over at Dusknoir, halfway across the room. “Dusknoir, sir?” Wigglytuff grabbed Chatot and held him tight as the rest of the guild moved closer. “Are you okay?”

Dusknoir swallowed and glanced down at his hands. He scrambled to find the words, but his tongue was still frozen. He couldn’t think of what to say.

He looked up, at Chatot at first, then past him at Breanna’s horrified look. Then past her, at the green form in the doorway he was supposed to be guarding.

Grovyle met his eyes before he ducked back, and Dusknoir was confident he’d seen the whole thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to CR_Coder, who assumed Dusknoir's situation was being caused by Darkrai! That reminded me of how much I love this terrible man. I have headcanons galore about him (admittedly because I love worldbuilding and his reveal as the Ultimate Villian in the games was, well, bad) and throwing him in allowed me to change some future plot points up so they were much more satisfying.
> 
> Also, my original plan was to have Darkrai plop down a Dimensional Hole right in the main room. The current route kind of happened by accident, and when I went back to rewrite stuff so I wasn't advancing the tension too fast I realized that I didn't like my old plan. Of course, I still had to rewrite stuff because I didn't like my current plan either. The moral of this ramble is that three years of university-level creative writing classes give you weird standards even for fanfiction. 10/10 would recommend.


End file.
